New York City’s Chief Zika Hunter, Dr. Jennifer Rakeman (CC’94)

Dr. Jennifer Rakeman, director for the New York City Public Health Laboratory,

When the Zika virus emerged in the U.S. this year, Dr. Rakeman faced different demands than she did with the Ebola crisis in 2014. She had to quickly training staff to probe for signs of a little-understood virus that lurks for only a short time in urine samples and even more briefly in blood. Public health laboratories and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are among the only facilities equipped to test for the Zika virus, which is spread by a certain species of infected mosquito and it is Rakeman’s job to make sure every test result is 100% correct. “We’ve gone from getting zero Zika specimens to getting hundreds a day,” she said.